Sprout
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- Pre-Order
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- Expected 24 Mar 2026
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
Sprout has always hidden from the world—having antlers growing out of your head will do that. But when she hears that someone else like her might exist, she's willing to risk her safety—and that of her town—to get to the truth. A fantastical middle grade adventure that is sure to grow on you.
"Sprout is inventive, wonderfully peculiar, and full of heart and wonder. Readers will love it." –Erin Entrada Kelly, Two-time Newbery Medalist & National Book Award Finalist
Sprout has gotten used to hiding. Having antlers growing out of your head will do that. But when she learns that another girl with wild antlers has been spotted, Sprout is determined to see if there is someone else out there who understands the strangeness she feels.
Soon she attracts the attention of E.B., a fellow oddball, who remembers everything he has ever seen, read, or heard. And he's not the only one fascinated by Sprout. A curious doctor and a set of terrifying twins are tracking Sprout's every move. But nothing could have prepared Sprout for the dark secrets that have taken root in her town. Digging up the truth might help Sprout understand her past--or it might spell the end of her town forever.
Acclaimed author Taylor Tyng delivers a fast-paced and marvelously fantastical adventure about learning to embrace who you are--thorns and all.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In the small mill town of Tolsbury, Mass., 13-year-old Sprout Sprowder is careful to keep her flower-producing antlers—which she calls her "plantlers"—hidden from everyone but her florist mother, wearing an ever-present pageboy cap. When Sprout inadvertently reveals her plantlers to E.B. Shaw, a boy her own age with a phenomenal memory and a knack for trivia, she worries he'll use her secret against her. Despite Sprout's fears, the two become fast friends as they team up to investigate reports of another girl apparently sporting plantlers. Sprout is eager to meet someone like herself, but when the director of nearby Longmore Institute, a private asylum, takes an inexplicable interest in Sprout, she discovers that there's more to her plantlers—and to Tolsbury—than she anticipated. Sprout's sparkling first-person POV—brimming with sassy confidence and snarky humor—relays this funny and heartwarming adventure by Tyng (Clara Poole and the Long Way Round), which straddles the line between cozy fantasy and fast-paced thriller. The protagonists cue as white. Ages 8–12.
